Category: Exam Questions

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Economic History Exam Questions M.I.T.

MIT. Final Examinations for European Economic History. Kindleberger, 1970/74

The M.I.T. graduate economics program of my day (mid-1970s) still offered three courses in economic history: Peter Temin‘s American Economic History, Evsey Domar‘s Russian Economic History and Charles Kindleberger‘s European Economic History. I will confess here that little value-added from his lectures has survived the intervening decades for me  (I did read plenty!). That said, my personal take-away from Kindleberger’s class was that he represented the ideal balance of scholar-gentleman-economist. I suspect he felt as much a dinosaur when he taught us in the mid-1970s as I certainly do now when I eavesdrop on the conversation of graduate students when they mimic their elders, who are now sometimes a full generation younger than me. 

I posted a few of his favorite stories from his days at Columbia University. Here an outline biography of Charles Kindleberger at the MIT economics department.

__________________________

December 12, 1974
8:30-10:30

Informal Final Examination
14.733
European Economic History

 

Answer any three questions (forty minutes each), but be certain that not all your answers refer exclusively to Great Britain or the Continent of Europe.

 

  1. It was said that the Holy Roman Empire was neither Holy, Roman nor an Empire.
    to what extent was the Industrial Revolution a) Industrial? b) a Revolution?
    Explain at some length, and indicate which Industrial Revolution, if there are more than one, you are referring to.
  1. Compare and contrast one pair, at least twenty-five years apart, from the following list:
    1. financial crises in Europe
    2. economic booms
    3. recoveries from war
    4. reparation transfers
  1. Evaluate the role of tariff policy in the economic growth or the economic development of one or more countries of Europe over some period of time which you specify.
  1. Compare the profiles of economic development over the nineteenth century of one of the pairs of countries below, and account for the major differences:
    1. Netherlands — Britain
    2. Britain — Germany
    3. France — Germany
    4. Italy — other country of your choice

__________________________

14.733 FINAL EXAMINATION
December 23, 1970 9AM
Three hours

 

Answer any four questions […illegible…] but at least one from each group.

 

Group I

  1. Describe the course and causes of the Industrial revolution in one country in Europe.
  2. Compare and contrast Rostow’s Stages and Gerschenkron’s discontinuity in economic growth, illustrating your answer with material from European history.
  3. Discuss the role in the early industrialization of one country of Europe of a) labor; b) capital; or c) technology.

 

Group II

  1. To what do you ascribe the business cycle in the 19th century Europe? Explain.
  2. Argue for or against the advantage of backwardness and the penalty of the head start, illustrating your argument with 19th century economic data from Europe.
  3. How do you account for the limited movement toward free trade in Europe after 1869. what did it accomplish, and why did it end?

 

Group III

  1. Did Europe grow rich on imperialistic exploitation of the rest of the world in the last quarter of the 19th century? Support your answer fully.
  2. Compare German recoveries after World War I and after World War II.
  3. Discuss the role of Europe in the 1929 depression.
  4. Compare and contrast the role of London in world finance before and after 1913.

 

Source: Personal copies of Irwin Collier.

 

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Exam Questions M.I.T.

MIT. Final Examination in 2nd Core Microeconomics. Martin Weitzman, 1974

The theory core at MIT in the mid-1970s consisted of four half-semester courses in microeconomics and four half-semester courses in macroeconomics. For reasons unknown to me, Microeconomic Theory I (A) taught by Martin Weitzman was scheduled to follow Microeconomic Theory II (A) taught by Robert Bishop for the First Term of 1974-75. I guess I should really say, there was no good reason not to simply reverse the numbering of the courses since Weitzman’s course was in most respects the more advanced of the two. The course featured the economic intuition behind some “quick and dirty bankers’ calculations”, an introduction to linear models, and the first essay of Koopmans’ Three Essays on the State of Economic Science.

_______________________

Microeconomic Theory I (A)

14.121 December 1974                 Final Exam                M. Weitzman

Instructions:

  1. Be sure you have picked a number and identify yourself by that number only on each blue book you use.
  2. Try to answer any three out of the following six questions.
  3. Complete answers on all three questions are not required for passing. Two well answered questions would easily be enough to pass, for example.
  4. Total time: one and a half hours.
  5. Answer each question in a separate blue book.
  6. Try to be concise and to the point. Wordiness is not going to help anyone.

 

  1. Explain carefully why the following three features of the American economy lead to productive inefficiency. Say what might be done to rectify the inefficiency.
    1. water pollution
    2. existence of “free” fishing grounds.
    3. the fact that the price of certain raw materials (Like natural gas) is artificially suppressed.
  1. Suppose there are a total of I tasks to be accomplished. A limited number of labor saving machines are available to help out. Task i can be performed by using ai units of labor alone, or bi (< ai) units of labor along with ei machines, or the appropriate combination. There are a total of M machines available.
    1. Formulate the problem of using the available machines to minimize the amount of labor required to perform the tasks.
    2. Describe the optimal solution.
    3. What is the value or shadow price of an extra machine? Show directly that minimizing shadow costs at shadow prices yields the right answer.
  1. A particular “two-armed” model of a drill-press can be worked by either one or two operators. With one operator it produces U units of output per unit time; with two operators it produces V units per unit time.
    1. With L laborers and M machines available, describe precisely how to calculate how many machines should be operated by one worker and how many by two in order to maximize output. What is the marginal rate of substitution between machines and laborers? (Hint: Try to get an answer using “common sense.” If that doesn’t work, draw isoquants.)
    2. Suppose total output is fixed in the long run. As many machines can be rented and workers hired as desired at the going rates. How do you decide whether it is better to operate machines with one or with two laborers?
    3. In the short run the number of machines is fixed but as many workers as desired can be hired at the going wage rate. The output is variable. How is the short run supply of output schedule determined?
  1. There are two farm plots, A and B. Both have identical production functions. If x units of labor is applied to A (or to B) it results in f(x) units of output. A total of L units of labor is available for application to both farm plots.
    1. Formulate the planning problem of allocating labor to A and to B so as to maximize total output from both farms when a total of L units of labor are available.
    2. Assuming f’(x) > 0, f”(x) < 0, characterize exactly the solution to problem (a) above and show why it is optimal.
    3. Show directly that there is an efficiency price of labor relative to output which supports the optimal solution of (b).
    4. Assuming f’(x) > 0, f” > 0, characterize exactly the solution to problem (a) above. Does (c) hold now? Why or why not?
  1. A firm or economy consists of a number of divisions or subsectors. There are no externalities. From first principles, prove rigorously the following result: If each subsector is maximizing profits at the same positive prices, the firm’s overall mixture of inputs and outputs is being efficiently produced.
  1. Suppose modern low-cost shell housing is made according to the following production formula:

H = (A + T)αL1-α

A,T,L ≥ 0

Where H is housing, A is aluminum, T is tin, and L is labor. Tin is produced by a perfect competitor, so there is free entry into the tin industry. One unit of labor produces a unit of tin. Aluminum, on the other hand, is a monopolistic industry which can charge any price it wants to, and can restrict entry. One unit of labor produces b > 1 units of aluminum. The aluminum, tin, and housebuilding industries have competitive labor supplies. For simplicity, suppose that the total budget of all the housebuilders is fixed and aluminum has no other uses.

a. What will be the competitive price of tin? The monopoly price of aluminum? Why?

b. What input mix will the home builders select and why?

c. Referring to question (b), are houses being produced efficiently? Why or why not? Give as precise an answer as you can. If you find that houses are produced inefficiently, give the efficient way to produce them.

 

Source: Personal copy of Irwin Collier.

Image Source: Detail from 1976 MIT economics department group picture.

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Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Economy of Russia. Leontief, 1947-48

We are used to seeing professors restricting their teaching to their research comfort zones. We see here that Wassily Leontief also taught courses from his broad interests. Here the syllabus and final exam for a course on the “Russian” [“Soviet” would have a better word choice] economy.

During the following Fall term Alexander Gerschenkron taught a graduate seminar (Economics 212b) on the subject which was attended by only three graduate students, but the reading list was much more extensive. Leontief offered this undergraduate course (Economics 112b) in the Spring of 1949.

________________________________________

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 12b. Professor Leontief. — The Economy of Russia (F).

Total 35: 16 Graduates, 5 Seniors, 7 Juniors, 2 Sophomores, 4 Radcliffe, 1 Other.

 

Source: Report of the President of Harvard College and Reports of Departments for 1947-48, p. 89.

________________________________________

Economics 12b
The Economy of Russia
Fall Term, 1947-48

 

I.        From the Emancipation to the Revolution

1.       Agricultural development and reforms
2.         First stages of industrialization

Reading assignments:

Bowden, Karpovich, and Usher, An Economic History of Europe since 1750, Ch. 29, pp. 598-615.
Hubbard, L. E., The Economics of Soviet Agriculture, Chs. 1-8, pp. 1-63.
Maynard, J., The Russian Peasant, Chs. 1, 2, pp. 13-62.

II.      War and Revolution

1.         War economy up to the October Revolution
2.         Agrarian revolution and the nationalization of industries

Reading assignments:

Maynard, Ch. 6, pp. 63-81.
Baykov, A., The Development of the Soviet Economic System, Chs. 1, 2, 3, pp. 1-48.

III.     War Communism

1.          Industrial collapse
2.         Agricultural contraction

Reading assignments:

Dobb, M. Russian Economic Development since the Revolution, Chs. 3, 4, pp. 66-128.

IV.     The New Economic Policy

1.          Private enterprise and the socialized sector
2.         Agricultural recovery
3.         Industrial reconstruction

Reading assignments:

Maynard, Ch. 10, pp. 148-182.
Baykov, Chs. 4-9, pp. 49-152.

V.       The Economics of High Pressure Industrialization

1.         Capital accumulation
2.         Structural change

Reading assignments:

Yugow, A., Russia’s Economic Front for War and Peace, Ch. 2, pp. 30-42, and Ch. 9, pp. 198-219.
Baykov, A., Ch. 10, pp. 153-158.
Dobb, M., Ch. 8, pp. 177-208.

VI.     Socialist Agriculture

1.         The process of socialization (collectivization)
2.         The Kolkhoz
3.         The Sovkhoz and machine-tractor station
4.         Development of agricultural output and its allocation

Reading assignments:

Baykov, Ch. 13, pp. 189-311; Ch. 17, pp. 309-334.
Yugow, Ch. 3, pp. 43-81.
Maynard, Ch. 15, pp. 279-309.
Bienstock, Schwarz, and Yugow, Management in Russian Industry and Agriculture, Chs. 10-17, pp. 127-179.

VII.    Industrial Expansion

1.         The three Five-Year Plans
2.         Industrial organization
3.         Labor and unions

Reading assignments:

Yugow, Ch. 2, pp. 13-30; Chs. 7 and 8, pp. 149-197.
Bienstock…, Chs. 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, and 9.
Baykov, Ch. 11, pp. 159-187; Ch. 13, pp. 212-233; Ch. 16, pp. 277-308; and Ch. 18, pp. 335-363.
Bergson, A., The Structure of Soviet Wages, Chs. 1, 2, pp. 3-25; Chs. 11, 12, 13, and 14, pp. 159-210.
Report of the C.I.O. Delegation to the Soviet Union, 1947.
Dobb, M., Ch. 16, pp. 407-453.

 

VIII.   Functional Structure of the Economic System

1.         Prices, wages, taxes, and profits
2.         The governmental budget as an instrument of economic policy
3.         Methods of planning
4.         Principles of planning

Reading assignments:

Baykov, Ch. 15, pp. 251-276; Ch. 20, pp. 423-479.
Yugow, Ch. 4, pp. 82-95; Ch. 10, 11, pp. 219-243.
Bienstock…, Ch. 4, pp. 47-57; Ch. 6, pp. 66-90; Introduction, pp. xiii-xxxii.
Lange, Oscar, The Working Principles of Soviet Economy, American-Russian Institute.
Dobb, M., Chs. 13 and 14, pp. 313-348.

 

IX.     War and Post-War

1.          Soviet war economy
2.         The new Five-Year Plan
3.         Soviet econmy and world economy

Reading assignments:

Schwartz, Harry, Russia’s Postwar Economy
Gerschenkron, A., Economic Relations with the U.S.S.R.
Yugow, Ch. 5, pp. 96-122.
Dobb, M., Ch. 12, pp. 290-312.

General reading:

Gregory, J., and Shave, D. W., The U.S.S.R., A Geographical Survey, Part I, pp. 1-250.
Scott, John, Behind the Urals.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives , Wassily Leontief Papers (HUG 4517.45), Course Material Box 2, Folder “The Economy of Russia—1949”.
also: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 4, Folder “Economics 1947-48 (1 of 2)”

 

Reading Period
January 5-15, 1948

Undergraduate students:

E. Varga: Two Systems: Socialist Economy and Capitalist Economy, 1939
or
Manya Gordon: Workers before and after Lenin.

Graduate Students

Studies in Income and Wealth, Volume Eight, Part 8: Methods of Estimating Naitonal Income in Soviet Russia, Paul Studenski, from Conference on Research in Income and Wealth, National Bureau of Economic Research, New York, 1946. or
Review of Economic Statistics, November, 1947 – Articles on Russia’s National Income.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 4, Folder “Economics 1947-48 (1 of 2)”

________________________________________

1947-48
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 12b

Answer any FIVE of the following SIX questions:

  1. Describe and appraise the general economic significance of the methods of income payments and income allocation in Soviet agriculture.
  2. Describe the methods which the Soviet Government used (a) to secure and (b) to allocate funds for capital investment.
  3. Compare the role of the trade unions in the U.S.S.R. and the U.S.A.
  4. Characterize the successive Five-Year Plans by their principal distinguishing features.
  5. Indicate the reasons and analyze the implications of the recent Soviet monetary reform.
  6. Describe the organization and discuss some of the principal problems of Soviet economic planning.

Final, January, 1948.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives, Wassily Leontief Papers (HUG 4517.45), Course Material Box 2, Folder “Economics 12b”.

________________________________________

March 30, 1948
W.W. Leontief

Make-Up Examination for Economics 12b—Final Exam

Answer FIVE Questions Including Questions 1 and 2

  1. Describe the nature and the function of the turnover tax.
  2. Describe and interpret the organization and the role of foreign trade in the Soviet Economy.
  3. Describe and appraise the general economic significance of the methods of income payments and income allocation in Soviet agriculture.
  4. Describe the methods which the Soviet Government used (a) to secure and (b) to allocate funds for capital investment.
  5. Compare the role of the trade unions in the U.S.S.R. and the U.S.A.
  6. Characterize the successive Five-Year Plans by their principal distinguishing features.

Source: Harvard University Archives, Wassily Leontief Papers (HUG 4517.45), Course Material Box 2, Folder “Economics 12b”.

 

Image Source: Harvard Album 1949.

 

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Courses Economists Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Economics of Corporations. Dewing and Opie, 1929

 

Professor Arthur Stone Dewing (1880-1971) and Dr. Redvers Opie taught the course Economics of Corporations at Harvard that was given in the second semester of the academic year 1928/29.  In an earlier posting I transcribed a student review of the course that was published in the Harvard Crimson (December 11, 1929).

Dewing was born (April 16, 1880) and died (January 19, 1971) in Boston. His academic degrees were awarded by Harvard (A.B., 1902; A.M., 1903; Ph.D. in Philosophy, 1905). Dissertation title: “Negation and Intuition in the Philosophy of Schelling.” He also studied at the University of Munich. Dewing taught philosophy from 1902 to 1913 and in economics and finance from 1911 to 1933.  He was one of the founders of the Harvard Business School. For a memorial see Cornelius Vermeil, “Arthur Stone Dewing”, Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Third Series, Vol. 83, 1971, pp. 165-167.

Incidentally Arthur S. Dewing was a distinguished numismatist, his collection of nearly three thousand ancient Greek coins was considered “one of the most outstanding in the hands of a private collector in the world.” Here a fascinating article about the theft and recovery of much the Dewing collection.

Redvers Opie (1900-1984) was a Harvard economics Ph.D., best known as the translator of Joseph Schumpeter’s The Theory of Economic Development (1934). From the “Company Info” page of Ecanal (Economic Analysis for Company Planning in Mexico) with information added by me regarding the dates of Opie’s academic degrees:

Ecanal was founded in 1976 by the British economist, Dr Redvers Opie, who was educated at Durham University [B. Com., 1919]. He taught at Oxford University and became the Bursar of Magdalen College. Later on he received a PhD from and taught at Harvard University [A.M. in 1927. Ph.D. in 1928. Thesis: “John Stuart Mill: a Reexamination”]. On the recommendation of John Maynard Keynes, he became the UK Treasury representative in Washington DC, and later on one of the five members of the UK delegation to the Bretton Woods Conference, which gave birth to the IMF and the World Bank. He started Ecanal upon becoming a naturalized Mexican as the source of critical analysis of the economy and government policy useful for business.

Cf. the 1933-34 Additional Readings for General Examination Corporations for Harvard.

Note: In the Course Announcements for 1928-29 (second edition), p. 122, Dr. C. E. Persons was originally scheduled to teach this course.

The information for this course comes from the course notes taken by later University of Chicago and Columbia University economist, Albert Gailord Hart. Hart’s handwriting defies encryption though I am proud to say that all but two or three words in what follows has been successfully deciphered. The course reading assignments are followed by the final examination questions.

__________________________________

Economics 4b
Assignments

Buy Jones—Trust Problem

[Jones, Eliot. The Trust Problem in the Unites States. New York: Macmillan, 1929. For the 1921 edition]

Choose one[:]

Pollock & Maitland—Law – Vol. I 586-518

[Pollock, Sir Frederick and Frederic William Maitland. The History of English Law before the Time of Edward I, 2nd ed. Cambridge (England): Cambridge University Press, 1923.]

[Illegible name, “Bold—-“?] 1st ed 362-376 [;] 3rd ed 469-490

J. P. Davis Corp. 1, 7 (2 & 8 optional)

[Davis, John P. Corporations; A Study of the Origin and Development of Great Business Combinations and of their Relation to the Authority of the State. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1905. Volume I, probably Chapter I (Introduction, pp. 1-12) and Chapter II (The Nature of Corporations, pp.13-34) intended; Volume II, probably Chapter VII (Legal View of Corporations, pp. 209-247) and Chapter VIII (Modern Corporations, pp. 248-280) intended]

Baldwin Mod Pol Inst

[Baldwin, Simeon Eben. Modern Political Institutions. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1898]

Buy one[:]

Dewing A. S. Cor. Finance (simplified) omit 8, 17-19, 21

[Dewing, Arthur Stone. Corporation Finance. New York: Ronald Press, 1922]

Lyon, Hastings—[Cor. Finance] (specialized) omit I 6,8, II 4

[Lyon, Hastings, Corporation Finance. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1916
Part I: Capitalization. Part II: Distributing Securities, Reorganization.]

Hour exam in mid-March, another early April

Jones 1-5, 9, 11-2, 14-6

Watkins Indust Combin & Pub. Pol. 11 (R 223-47)
Not held for cases except big ones.

[Watkins, Myron Webster. Industrial Combinations and Public Policy: A Study of Combination, Competition and the Common Welfare. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1927.

Jones 17-18

Take one.

1 Indust Conf Bd “Trade Associations”

[National Industrial Conference Board, Trade Associations; Their Economic Significance and Legal Status, 1925.  Reviewed in Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 35, No. 3, June, 1927. pp. 428-30.]

2 [Indust. Conf. Bd.] “Public Reg. of Competitive Practices”

[(Myron W. Watkins), National Industrial Conference Board, Public Regulation of Competitive Practices, 1925. Revised and enlarged edition, 1929. Third edition, 1940.]

3 [Illegible word] the Law plus Watkins

4 Kirsch—“Trade Ass’ns.

[Kirsch, Benjamin S. Trade Associations: The Legal Aspects. New York: Central Book Co., 1928. Review in Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 38, No. 2 (April, 1930), pp. 238-240.]

Ad lit. A. Smith V, ch. I, Pt III, article I, 211-245.

Geneva Economic Conference of 1927. Publications on Cartels.

[Paul de Rousiers, Cartels, Trusts, and Their Development; D. H. MacGregor, International Cartels. Geneva, 1927]

 

Source: Albert Gailord Hart Papers. Box 60, Folder “R Opie 1929 Monopoly etc”.

__________________________________

 

1928-29
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 4b

PART I

(About one hour)

Write an essay on one of the following topics:

(a) Public Policy and Business Standards.
(b) Trade Association Activities and the Competitive System.
(c) The Rule of Reason.
(d) Government Control of Combination and Consolidation To-day.

 

PART II

Answer not more than FOUR questions.

  1. What significance has a study of “laws of return” for an understanding of the problems connected with industrial combinations?
  2. “Certainly the implication of the Webb Act is that enforced competition is too weak, too inefficient to meet monopolistic combination. The question may be fairly asked, what does this admission entail in regard to our domestic trust policy?” Defend, refute or modify.
  3. Does the establishment of the Federal Trade Commission reflect any changes in the relation of Government to industry? What have been the most important activities of the Commission since its inception?
  4. What are the chief causes and purposes of corporate reorganization? Describe the usual procedure adopted, paying particular attention to the methods of protecting the interests of the various parties involved.
  5. “The trust dissolutions have not resulted in a spectacular and instant rescue of the consumer from the evils of monopoly, but that was hardly to have been expected.”
    Do you agree?
    What has been accomplished by trust dissolutions?
  6. “The stockholder has a right to receive the earnings of the corporation as dividends; and the existence of a large surplus simply shows that the stockholder has been deprived of his rightful income.” Does this indicate an intelligent understanding of corporate surplus?

Final. 1929.

 

Source: Albert Gailord Hart Papers. Box 60, Folder “Exams: CHI Qualifyin[?]”.

Image Source: (Dewing, left) Harvard Album 1925; (Opie, right) Harvard Album 1932.

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Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Government Regulation of Industry. A.B. Correlation Examination, 1939

Today’s posting is a transcription of the “correlation examination” questions for government regulation of industry given at Harvard in May 1939.  

Concentrators in Economics will have to pass in the spring their Junior year a general examination on the department of Economics, and in the spring of their Senior year an examination correlating Economics with either History or Government (this correlating exam may be abolished by 1942), and a third one on the student’s special field, which is chosen from a list of eleven, including economic theory, economic history, money and banking, industry, public utilities, public finance, labor problems, international economics, policies and agriculture.
Courses in allied fields, including Philosophy, Mathematics, History, Government, and Sociology, are suggested by the department for each of the special fields. In addition, Geography 1 is recommended in connection with international policies or agriculture.
[Source: Harvard Crimson, May 31, 1938]

A printed copy of questions for twelve A.B. examinations in economics at Harvard for the academic year 1938-39 can be found in the Lloyd A. Metzler papers at Duke’s Economists’ Papers Project. 

Economic Theory,
Economic History Since 1750,
Money and Finance,
Market Organization and Control,
Labor Economics and Social Reform.

  • Six Correlation Examinations given to Honors Candidates.

Economic History of Western Europe since 1750,
American Economic History,
History of Political and Economic Thought,
Public Administration and Finance,
Government Regulation of Industry,
Mathematical Economic Theory.

______________________

If you find this posting interesting, here is the complete list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have assembled. You can subscribe to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror below. There is also an opportunity for comment following each posting….

 

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DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS

CORRELATION EXAMINATION
Government Regulation of Industry

(Three hours)

Answer either FOUR or FIVE questions, including TWO from each group. If you answer FOUR questions, write about an hour on ONE of them and mark your answer “Essay.” This question will be given double weight.

A
Use a separate blue book for the questions in this part

  1. Discuss (a) the political and (b) the economic problems that must be met if cyclical fluctuations are to be moderated by a great public works program.
  2. “Despite popular misconceptions the courts have failed to nullify the antitrust laws.”
  3. “The trouble with the large corporation is not its size nor any lack of efficiency but rather its lack of social responsibility.” Is there any way short of out-right government ownership for meeting this problem?
  4. “The existence of cartels vastly facilitated the penetration of political power into the economic sphere in the Fascist countries.”
  5. “The foremost mandate to those who wish to avoid the expansion of public ownership and operation, is to bring about the adoption of a rational method for determining base values of public utilities for regulatory purposes.”
  6. “Although the mixed undertaking has points in common with the public corporation such as its corporate form and monopolistic position, the two organizations are strikingly different.”
  7. “At present the United States does not have a democratically administered radio. The present system is subject to the pressure of groups interested in economic advantage. Are the evils of a private-profit radio greater than those of a nationalistic radio?”
  8. “The fiscal system cannot serve as an engine of social control unless it is very materially redesigned and remodeled. It can become a means of social control only by becoming itself the object of control.”
  9. “The public utility problem, in whatever form it is found, is primarily a question of distributing controls. The locus of ownership is merely an incidental aspect of the whole problem.”

 

B
Use a separate blue book for the questions in this part

  1. “Perhaps the most acute of our present problems is that of preserving the democratic control of an increasingly centralized government power over economic life, rather than the avoidance of further extension of centralized government control.”
  2. Compare briefly commission regulation and government competition (as alternative methods of controlling market results) with respect to their most important political, administrative, and economic aspects.
  3. “The experience of the last ten years in ‘solving’ the farm problem leads to one conclusion only—that it can never be solved by government.”
  4. “Experience since 1920 demonstrates that the only way we can get desirable consolidation of railroads, which would yield great economies, is to allow the carriers to consolidate as they wish free from legal restrictions.”
  5. Discuss the administrative tasks and methods of the National Labor Relations Board.
  6. “Many of the bad effects of monopoly could be eliminated simply by amending the antitrust laws to prohibit the practices of price leadership and sharing the market.”
  7. “If price fixing according to the criterion laid down in the National Bituminous Coal Act of 1937 were extended to a large number of major industries wages and profits would be higher all ‘round.”
  8. Discuss some of the economic and administrative problems presented by the Robinson-Patman Act.
  9. Explain why you would favor or oppose the establishment of a Bureau of Industrial Economics to collect and publish basic industrial statistics and engage in continuous study of the problems of industrial organization and business policies.

May 12, 1939.

 

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Lloyd Appleton Metzler Papers. Box 7. [Harvard University], Division of History, Government and Economics. Division Examinations for the Degree of A.B., 1938-39.

 

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Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Public Administration and Finance, Correlation Exam, 1939

Today’s posting is a transcription of the “correlation examination” questions for public administration and finance given at Harvard in May 1939.

Concentrators in Economics will have to pass in the spring their Junior year a general examination on the department of Economics, and in the spring of their Senior year an examination correlating Economics with either History or Government (this correlating exam may be abolished by 1942), and a third one on the student’s special field, which is chosen from a list of eleven, including economic theory, economic history, money and banking, industry, public utilities, public finance, labor problems, international economics, policies and agriculture.
Courses in allied fields, including Philosophy, Mathematics, History, Government, and Sociology, are suggested by the department for each of the special fields. In addition, Geography 1 is recommended in connection with international policies or agriculture.
[Source: Harvard Crimson, May 31, 1938]

A printed copy of questions for twelve A.B. examinations in economics at Harvard for the academic year 1938-39 can be found in the Lloyd A. Metzler papers at Duke’s Economists’ Papers Project. 

Economic Theory,
Economic History Since 1750,
Money and Finance,
Market Organization and Control,
Labor Economics and Social Reform.

  • Six Correlation Examinations given to Honors Candidates.

Economic History of Western Europe since 1750,
American Economic History,
History of Political and Economic Thought,
Public Administration and Finance,
Government Regulation of Industry,
Mathematical Economic Theory.

______________________

If you find this posting interesting, here is the complete list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have assembled. You can subscribe to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror below. There is also an opportunity for comment following each posting….

 

 

______________________

DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS

CORRELATION EXAMINATION
Public Administration and Finance

(Three hours)

Answer either FOUR or FIVE questions, including TWO from each group. If you answer FOUR questions, write about an hour on ONE of them and mark your answer “Essay.” This question will be given double weight.

 

A
Use a separate blue book for the questions in this part

  1. “A marked tendency of modern legislation is to deal with regulatory problems by setting forth less frequently in the legislation itself the particular rules that shall control. More commonly the administrative agency is given power to prescribe governing regulations in certain spheres of activity.”
  2. “One factor that has received little attention is the need for administrative agencies to give adequate and effective publicity to their achievements. In the field of policy determination, effective publicizing of the policy and of the reasons that underlie it is essential.”
  3. “Although the U. S. Civil Service Commission has accomplished much in the way of reducing the patronage evil and in introducing competition as a means of recognizing merit, the full implications of the merit system have not been realized.”
  4. “The ultimate test of an administrative agency regulating business is the policy that it formulates; not the fairness as between the parties of the disposition of a controversy on a record of their own making.”
  5. “The development of American administrative law involves a potential conflict between the legislature and the judiciary. In humble realization by each of their respective functions lies in large measure the trembling hope for the maintenance of our democracy.”
  6. “A serious charge against the grant-in-aid from the point of view of concern for our dual system, is that it breaks down state initiative and devitalizes state policies. The exact contrary appears to be the case in actual practice.”
  7. “An old, established rule of statecraft is that ad hoc agencies should be kept at a minimum. Every agency that wants to be free from the integrated structure of the government and the control of central staff agencies must be able to make out a case for itself, showing that the advantages considerably outweigh the disadvantages.”
  8. “The concept of efficiency can be made the basis of a comprehensive and flexible framework for the evaluation and appraisal of government. It is a powerful tool for analyzing relationships of legislature and administrator.”
  9. “In the lack of cooperation between the President and Congress, is to be found the most serious weakness in the national fiscal system.” Discuss with reference to the Bureau of the Budget and the Treasury Department as agencies for financial planning, accounting and control.

 

B
Use a separate blue book for the questions in this part

  1. “You cannot run a war without inflation, so the government must finance it by borrowing or issuing paper money instead of by increasing taxation.”
  2. Explain the purposes and the principal activities of the Farm Credit Administration, or the Reconstruction Finance Corporation.
  3. “People who talk about the ‘burden’ of the public debt fail to see that it is simply a matter of taxing Peter to pay Paul, or sometimes Peter.”
  4. Discuss the more important financial, administrative, and political problems which would be involved in a government program for extensive slum clearance.
  5. “Few people seem to realize that the Tennessee Valley Authority is socialism, and socialism of the worst sort characterized by fairyland economics, academic ideology, and absentee control.”
  6. “The chief result of the pernicious system of federal grants to states is that the people of those states with the smartest politicians get part of the bills for their own schools and highways paid by people in other states.”
  7. Discuss the possibilities of achieving a reduction in the costs of federal government or state government without diminishing the output of government services.
  8. “Our tax system needs to be revised in such ways as to discourage saving and encourage investment.”
  9. “The unplanned character of public spending by state and local governments must bear a considerable part of the blame for fluctuations in employment and the national income.”

 

May 12, 1939.

 

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Lloyd Appleton Metzler Papers. Box 7. [Harvard University], Division of History, Government and Economics. Division Examinations for the Degree of A.B., 1938-39.

 

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Undergraduate

Harvard. History of Political and Economic Thought, A.B. Correlation Exam, 1939

Today’s posting is a transcription of the “correlation examination” questions for the history of political and economic thought given at Harvard in May 1939.

Concentrators in Economics will have to pass in the spring their Junior year a general examination on the department of Economics, and in the spring of their Senior year an examination correlating Economics with either History or Government (this correlating exam may be abolished by 1942), and a third one on the student’s special field, which is chosen from a list of eleven, including economic theory, economic history, money and banking, industry, public utilities, public finance, labor problems, international economics, policies and agriculture.
Courses in allied fields, including Philosophy, Mathematics, History, Government, and Sociology, are suggested by the department for each of the special fields. In addition, Geography 1 is recommended in connection with international policies or agriculture.
[Source: Harvard Crimson, May 31, 1938]

A printed copy of questions for twelve A.B. examinations in economics at Harvard for the academic year 1938-39 can be found in the Lloyd A. Metzler papers at Duke’s Economists’ Papers Project. 

Economic Theory,
Economic History Since 1750,
Money and Finance,
Market Organization and Control,
Labor Economics and Social Reform.

  • Six Correlation Examinations given to Honors Candidates.

Economic History of Western Europe since 1750,
American Economic History,
History of Political and Economic Thought,
Public Administration and Finance,
Government Regulation of Industry,
Mathematical Economic Theory.

______________________

If you find this posting interesting, here is the complete list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have assembled. You can subscribe to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror below. There is also an opportunity for comment following each posting….

 

______________________

DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS
CORRELATION EXAMINATION
HISTORY OF POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC THOUGHT

(Three hours)

 

            Answer either FOUR or FIVE questions, selected from TWO or THREE groups. If questions are taken from only TWO groups, at least TWO questions must be answered in each group. If you answer FOUR questions, write about an hour on ONE of them and mark your answer “Essay.” This question will be given double weight.

 

A
Use a separate blue book for the questions in this part.

  1. “The greatest contribution of the Hellenistic Age in the field of political thought was the idea of cosmopolitanism.”
  2. “Dante’s De Monarchia represents both the culmination and the close of medieval political theorizing on international relations.”
  3. “Luther accepted the medieval conception of the social order, while at the same time rejecting all its sanctions.”
  4. “The Leviathan of Hobbes is the best philosophical comment on the Tudor system.”
  5. Who in your opinion is more typical of the eighteenth-century French thought: Montesquieu, Voltaire or Rousseau?
  6. “In a historical discussion of Romanticism, the term should be used in the plural, not in the singular.”
  7. “Hegel’s philosophy, with its emphasis on the historical continuity and collective nature of society, contributed to the growth of various types of political and social thought.”
  8. Discuss the impact of the theory of Evolution on the idea of Progress.
  9. “The Dictatorship of the Proletariat is a modern version of the Enlightened Despotism.”
  10. “It is highly significant that the present-date dictatorships, while frankly admitting they are anti-liberal nature, all pretend that they are more democratic than the old democracies.”

B
Use a separate blue book for the questions in this part.

  1. To what extent are the classifications of types of governments given by Plato and Aristotle useful at the present day? What amendments or additions would you suggest?
  2. The theory of popular sovereignty in the Middle Ages.
  3. “When Machiavelli based his instruction for Princes on the freedom from restraint, it seemed to the men of his day and unheard-of innovation, a monstrous crime.”
  4. “What is called totalitarianism is really the rediscovery of the doctrine of sovereignty, well-established in the 16th century, by nations which have more recently come to national life and the realization of it. Nothing has been added to the doctrine except the confusion of legal omnipotence with a practical omnicompetence.”
  5. “It was in truth a revolutionary act when Rousseau struck out the contract of rulership from the contractual theory; but it was not wholly without preparation that this stroke fell.”
  6. “It is in general a necessary condition of free institutions that the boundaries of governments should coincide in the main with nationalities.”
  7. How would you explain the weakness and inadequacy of American political thought in the period since the early years of the 19th century?
  8. “The idea of the totalitarian State was born in the last world war, which became a totalitarian war.”
  9. “The Fascist state is not legal but social; it deals with men as they are, not with legal patterns or abstractions. It does not recognize the “rights of citizens”; it offers men, services.”

 

C
Use a separate blue book for the questions in this part.

  1. “For a modern student, seeking to understand and to judge the medieval doctrines about ‘usury’, both the theoretical arguments supplied by Aristotle, and the religious attitude of the Church, are less important than certain medieval economic conditions.”
  2. “The basis of mercantilism was not confusion of the ideas, money and wealth, but a set of conditions which made the policy inevitable and right in that era.”
  3. “Few writers in history have exerted an influence upon the policies of any nation, equal to that of Adam Smith over British fiscal and commercial policy throughout the nineteenth century.”
  4. “The two parts of Ricardo’s system of economic theory were inconsistent; his theory of value or exchange implied, given free markets or free competition, a perfect harmony of all individual interests with one another and the public interest; but his theory of distribution, or wages, profits, and rent, implied a conflict of class-interests, in which Capital robs Labor while the Landlords Rob both.”
  5. “The classical tradition of economic theory is not responsible for the economic interpretation of history; for Marx was led to the latter, not at all by the ideas he borrowed from the classical economists, but wholly by Hegel’s philosophy of history, which he converted from ‘dialectical idealism,’ into his own theory of ‘dialectical materialism.’”
  6. “The ‘marginal utility’ and ‘productivity’ theories were invented in the late 19th century by the Austrian economists, J. B. Clark, and others, in an effort to refute Marx; and they failed to do this, because Marx had written about actual capitalism, while these new theories assumed an economic system that never did, or could, exist.”
  7. “The history of economic theory, in relation to that of the public policies discussed by economists, shows how small a part reason plays in the conduct of human affairs. To take only one example; although all economists have agreed, for a century, that Free Trade is beneficial, and Protection is harmful to every nation, only England heeded them for a little while, and they are now ignored on this issue, thru-out the world.”
  8. “The majority of the nineteenth century economists scarcely recognized, and their present-day successors are still far from understanding, the worst disease of the modern economic system, i.e., that which has caused it, ever since the outset of the industrial revolution, to break down every tenth year or so, in a world-wide depression.”
  9. “The ‘trust-busting’ era in American history had behind it the over-simple theory of business competition and monopoly, of the 19th century economists. But economists now possess a more realistic theory of ‘monopolistic competition,’ which may lead in time to public acceptance, and regulation of monopolies, replacing futile efforts to suppress them.”
  10. “The early, classical economic theory properly emphasized the ‘long-run’ effects of disturbing changes in economic conditions, which if allowed to work themselves out, usually correct the distressing, immediate effects that public opinion always wants governments to correct at once. But as more recent economic theorists have turned to ‘short-run’ analysis, they have fallen a prey, themselves, to the popular fallacies exploded by their predecessors.”

May 12, 1939.

 

 

Source: David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University. Lloyd A. Metzler Papers, Box 7; [Harvard University], Division of History, Government and Economics, Division Examinations for the Degree of A.B., 1938-39.

Categories
Economic History Exam Questions Harvard Undergraduate

Harvard. A.B. Correlation Examination, American Economic History, 1939

Today’s posting is a transcription of the “correlation examination” questions for American economic history given at Harvard in May 1939.

Concentrators in Economics will have to pass in the spring their Junior year a general examination on the department of Economics, and in the spring of their Senior year an examination correlating Economics with either History or Government (this correlating exam may be abolished by 1942), and a third one on the student’s special field, which is chosen from a list of eleven, including economic theory, economic history, money and banking, industry, public utilities, public finance, labor problems, international economics, policies and agriculture.
Courses in allied fields, including Philosophy, Mathematics, History, Government, and Sociology, are suggested by the department for each of the special fields. In addition, Geography 1 is recommended in connection with international policies or agriculture.
[Source: Harvard Crimson, May 31, 1938]

A printed copy of questions for twelve A.B. examinations in economics at Harvard for the academic year 1938-39 can be found in the Lloyd A. Metzler papers at Duke’s Economists’ Papers Project. 

Economic Theory,
Economic History Since 1750,
Money and Finance,
Market Organization and Control,
Labor Economics and Social Reform.

  • Six Correlation Examinations given to Honors Candidates.

Economic History of Western Europe since 1750,
American Economic History,
History of Political and Economic Thought,
Public Administration and Finance,
Government Regulation of Industry,
Mathematical Economic Theory.

______________________

If you find this posting interesting, here is the complete list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have assembled. You can subscribe to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror below. There is also an opportunity for comment following each posting….

__________________________

DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS
CORRELATION EXAMINATION
AMERICAN ECONOMIC HISTORY
(Three hours)

Answer either FOUR or FIVE questions, including TWO from each group. If you answer FOUR questions, write about an hour on ONE of them and mark your answer “Essay.” This question will be given double weight.

A
Use a separate blue book for the questions in this part.

  1. Did the colonies profit economically from their position in the British colonial system?
  2. Describe and contrast the land policies of Massachusetts and Virginia in the colonial period.
  3. How much of the weakness of the government under the Articles of Confederation would you attribute to the economic condition of the country?
  4. Why die New York rather than Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Norfolk or Charleston become the pre-eminent port of the United States?
  5. Was slavery profitable?
  6. Can the Republican party on its record 1865 to 1900 be spoken of as the “sound money party”?
  7. Describe the efforts of state governments to regulate the railroads in the period before 1887.
  8. How do you account for the triumph of the American Federation of Labor over the Knights of Labor?
  9. Is there a continuity between the Progressive movement of the early part of this century and the economic policies of Franklin Delano Roosevelt?

 

B
Use a separate blue book for the questions in this part.

  1. “The real forces behind the trust movement were very plain and simple. A lot of excellent bankers in Wall Street found that they could buy two and two, put them together and sell to the public for six or seven or eight.”
  2. “The farmers have always tried to put the blame for their ‘troubles’ on some external factor—money, railroads, trusts—but the real cause was always the same: overproduction.”
  3. Sketch the more important consequences of immigration into the United States in the period 1870-1914.
  4. “The momentary flowering of canal transport in this country a hundred years ago had little basis outside the alluring fantasies of that generation of state planners.”
  5. What important consequences of the public land policy in the nineteenth century remain today?
  6. Discuss the effects of the Napoleonic Wars on American economic life.
  7. “In industrial production America went directly from the handicraft stage to the factory system.”
  8. Explain briefly the attitudes in different regions of the country on questions of monetary and banking policy during the period 1820-1850.
  9. What methods were used by the United States Government to mobilize its economic resources during the World War?

May 12, 1939.

 

Source: David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University. Lloyd A. Metzler Papers, Box 7; [Harvard University], Division of History, Government and Economics, Division Examinations for the Degree of A.B., 1938-39.

 

 

 

Categories
Economic History Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. A.B. Correlation Exam for W. European Economic History since 1750. 1939

Today’s posting is a transcription of the “correlation examination” questions for the economic history of Western Europe since 1750 given at Harvard in May 1939.

Concentrators in Economics will have to pass in the spring their Junior year a general examination on the department of Economics, and in the spring of their Senior year an examination correlating Economics with either History or Government (this correlating exam may be abolished by 1942), and a third one on the student’s special field, which is chosen from a list of eleven, including economic theory, economic history, money and banking, industry, public utilities, public finance, labor problems, international economics, policies and agriculture.
Courses in allied fields, including Philosophy, Mathematics, History, Government, and Sociology, are suggested by the department for each of the special fields. In addition, Geography 1 is recommended in connection with international policies or agriculture.
[Source: Harvard Crimson, May 31, 1938]

A printed copy of questions for twelve A.B. examinations in economics at Harvard for the academic year 1938-39 can be found in the Lloyd A. Metzler papers at Duke’s Economists’ Papers Project. 

Economic Theory,
Economic History Since 1750,
Money and Finance,
Market Organization and Control,
Labor Economics and Social Reform.

  • Six Correlation Examinations given to Honors Candidates.

Economic History of Western Europe since 1750,
American Economic History,
History of Political and Economic Thought,
Public Administration and Finance,
Government Regulation of Industry,
Mathematical Economic Theory.

______________________

If you find this posting interesting, here is the complete list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have assembled. You can subscribe to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror below. There is also an opportunity for comment following each posting….

 

______________________________

DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS
CORRELATION EXAMINATION

Economic History of Western Europe since 1750
(Three hours)

 

Answer either FOUR or FIVE questions, including TWO from each group. If you answer FOUR questions, write about an hour on ONE of them and mark your answer “Essay.” This question will be given double weight.

A
Use a separate blue book for the questions in this part.

  1. Discuss the economic causes, or the economic effects, in France, of the French Revolution.
  2. Discuss the relationship between economic developments and changes in the English imperial policy during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
  3. Outline the history and discuss the economic importance of canals in any major European country.
  4. The beginnings of agricultural science.
  5. “If, under the surface of frequent political disturbances, France retained her social equilibrium throughout the nineteenth century, that was due in no small degree to the peculiarities of her economic development.”
  6. Economic factors in the unification of Germany.
  7. “In the middle of the nineteenth century England occupied a paradoxical position: she was the center of a world economy, and yet she was entirely dependent on the rest of the world.”
  8. Outline and discuss the movement towards federation and amalgamation among trade unions in England, France or
  9. Discuss the principal stages in the development of the Soviet agrarian policy.

 

B
Use a separate blue book for the questions in this part.

  1. “The ‘industrial revolution’ means the change from production with hand tools to production with power-driven machinery. It was brought about, first, in the textile industries, by a series of inventions made in England around the end of the eighteenth century, and gradually introduced, later on, into other countries.”
  2. “The free trade policy of nineteenth century England sacrificed her permanent, national interests to the temporary interests of her manufacturers, disguised at the time in the imaginary, permanent principles of her economists and pacifists; the result is the present economic and military weakness of England.”
  3. Discuss the reasons why France has remained so largely an agricultural country, attaining high industrial rank in only a few particular industries.
  4. Discuss the economic policies of Gladstone and his party affiliations.
  5. What economic and political interests did England have in the Suez Canal? By what means did she secure control of it?
  6. “The German cartel was not, as many observers predicted, a step on the road to great trusts.”
  7. What considerations have dominated British policy in respect of petroleum and petroleum resources, since 1914?
  8. Discuss the development of protection for agricultural products in France or Germany during the latter part of the 19th
  9. “It is paradoxical that a labor party appeared later in England, than in European countries where industrial capitalism was relatively less advanced throughout the nineteenth century.”

 

May 12, 1939.

Source: David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University. Lloyd A. Metzler Papers, Box 7; [Harvard University], Division of History, Government and Economics, Division Examinations for the Degree of A.B., 1938-39.

 

 

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Undergraduate

Harvard. Market Organization and Control. Special Examination, 1939

Today’s posting is a transcription of the “special examination” questions in market organization and control given at Harvard in May 1939.

Concentrators in Economics will have to pass in the spring their Junior year a general examination on the department of Economics, and in the spring of their Senior year an examination correlating Economics with either History or Government (this correlating exam may be abolished by 1942), and a third one on the student’s special field, which is chosen from a list of eleven, including economic theory, economic history, money and banking, industry, public utilities, public finance, labor problems, international economics, policies and agriculture.
Courses in allied fields, including Philosophy, Mathematics, History, Government, and Sociology, are suggested by the department for each of the special fields. In addition, Geography 1 is recommended in connection with international policies or agriculture.
[Source: Harvard Crimson, May 31, 1938]

A printed copy of questions for twelve A.B. examinations in economics at Harvard for the academic year 1938-39 can be found in the Lloyd A. Metzler papers at Duke’s Economists’ Papers Project. 

Economic Theory,
Economic History Since 1750,
Money and Finance,
Market Organization and Control,
Labor Economics and Social Reform.

  • One of the Six Correlation Examinations given to Honors Candidates. (May 12, 1939; 3 hours)

Economic History of Western Europe since 1750,
American Economic History,
History of Political and Economic Thought,
Public Administration and Finance,
Government Regulation of Industry,
Mathematical Economic Theory.

_____________________________________

If you find this posting interesting, here is the complete list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have assembled. You can subscribe to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror below. There is also an opportunity for comment following each posting….

 

________________________

 

DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS

DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION
Market Organization and Control

(Three hours)

PART I

(About one hour)

  1. Write an essay on one of the following topics:
    1. public control of stock markets,
    2. significance of NRA for future public policy,
    3. the Federal Trade Commission—an appraisal,
    4. two-price plans for farm products,
    5. farm tenancy,
    6. cooperative marketing in agriculture,
    7. public planning for electricity in Great Britain and in the United States,
    8. the question of relief for the railroads,
    9. the concept of “natural monopoly”,
    10. the holding company in industry and in public utilities,
    11. rural electrification,
    12. legislative and administrative standards for government price control.

 

PART II

(About one hour)

Answer two questions. Candidates for honors must answer one starred question

  1. (*) What problems do you think especially need study in a “monopoly investigation”?
  2. (*) “With a basing point system competition in such crude matters as price and quality has been put aside, and all that seems to remain is a gentlemanly emulation in the art of making friends and influencing people.”
  3. Discuss the relations of vertical combination to efficiency and to monopoly.
  4. “Pure competition is not the path to economic progress in an industrial age.”
  5. (*) “Selection of a short-run agricultural program should depend on long-run objectives. If the eventual aim is to reduce farm capacity some type of domestic allotment scheme is appropriate for short-run policy; if the purpose is to maintain present capacity unchanged for two or three decades, then export subsidy is indicated for the short run.”
  6. (*) In the case where farm products are purchased by a few large buyers can the prices paid be kept permanently below the level that they would approximate if there were many small buyers? Explain.
  7. Would you agree with the view that the important public problems concerning agriculture are those of land use and conservation rather than those of prices, costs, and incomes?
  8. “the fact that during the twenties the farmers did not move on into some non-agricultural pursuit shows that the incomes that they received were sufficient to keep them on the farms. Hence there was no real overcapacity in agriculture.”
  9. (*) The elimination of excessive profits from utility operations is, in itself, no proof of successful rate regulation.”
  10. (*) What do you think should be the objectives of regulation of securities and financial practices of operating utility companies? What principles of financial regulation seem best fitted to achieve these aims?
  11. Discuss some of the important economic problems in the field of communications.
  12. “If the utility has a thousand transactions a day and its charge on each is but a reasonable compensation for the benefit received by the party dealing with it, such charges do not become unreasonable because the aggregate of the profits is large.”

 

PART III

(About one hour)

Answer two questions.

  1. “The manufacturers who reduce output to maintain high prices nevertheless understand that the soundest principles of economics have been violated when farmers are assisted by government to plough under cotton and slaughter little pigs. These same farmers, however, will in the same breath denounce the railroads and utilities for not expanding production by reducing rates.”
  2. “Sizes of firms have nothing to do with the degree of price flexibility in a market. That depends fundamentally on conditions of demand and of costs.”
  3. How may prices of farm products and location of agricultural production be affected by freight rates?
  4. “Where a large proportion of the costs are fixed, competition is likely to be a poor regulator of industry. It seems highly probable that some industries escaped a situation somewhat analogous to that of farming because of monopolistic elements in competition.”
  5. Do you agree with the view that price discrimination is desirable in public utilities but undesirable in other industries? Explain.
  6. “A reduction in corporate taxes would be the most effective antitrust measure to get lower prices.”
  7. Do you think that total employment and total consumption of goods and services in the country as a whole can be influenced appreciably by (a) the policies of public utility managements and of regulatory commissions, or (b) the policies of farmers and of the Secretary of Agriculture?
  8. “The organization and mechanism of the socialist economy is almost identical with that of monopolistic corporate capitalism. It is the results which would differ.”
  9. “In the future the policies of labor unions will have more influence on industrial prices than the policies of business executives.”

 

May 10, 1939.

 

Source: David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University. Lloyd A. Metzler Papers, Box 7; [Harvard University], Division of History, Government and Economics, Division Examinations for the Degree of A.B., 1938-39.